USL Feature
Thursday, May 24, 2012
BRADENTON, Fla. – The main audience for January’s USL PRO Combine presented by Umbro has always been the assembled coaches from the professional league’s clubs, but with the event being held at Bradenton’s IMG Soccer Academy for the first time this year, there was a new audience on hand to scout the pro prospects being put through their paces.
For IMG Bradenton Academics coach Scott Dean, the combine offered the opportunity to add some top-level talent to his club for the current PDL season, and it didn’t take long for Dean and his staff to reach out to the players they hoped would join the club this summer.
“Sunday, when they were walking off the field,” Dean said of his first approaches to players. “Literally, we came and watched it all, watched all the games, we probably had eight or nine guys we were talking to that we had gotten in contact with that night or the next day.
“We told them, ‘if you sign with someone, awesome. If you don’t have a place to go, we want you to come here,’ and that’s how we initiated it and it worked out well.”
Currently, four players from the combine are with the Academics with goalkeeper Michael Watkins, defender Edward Estrada, midfielder Jarod Stigall and forward Tomoyuki Kinoshita all on the club’s roster. For Watkins, getting the opportunity to return to the outstanding IMG Academies facility to continue his development, and gain valuable experience, was an easy decision.
“To be honest with you, on the last day of the combine I had pretty much already signed,” Watkins said. “We had an agreement that if I signed now, and if something pro came up, then they would let me go and do my pro thing, but right away as soon as they offered me, I told myself if I didn’t go this year, it’s definitely a good opportunity to get to the pro ranks, to come to IMG.”
The players have been able make a positive impact on the Academics’ season so far. Currently undefeated with a 3-0-1 record, and sitting in a tie for first place in the Southeast Division, Kinoshita and Stigall have been ever-presents in the starting lineup with Stigall having played every minute of every game in his holding midfield role.
Stigall, who came to the combine from the University of Denver, is not only aiming to find success with the Academics, but is also preparing for a big opportunity in Germany this August as he is set to go on trial with Bundesliga side Freiburg’s reserves.
“For sure, that’s exactly why I came down here,” Stigall said. “It’s world-class; you’ve got everything at your fingertips, so I feel like if I can take advantage of it, the sky’s the limit.”
Dean said while players knew about the facilities at IMG, getting the chance to show them up close what they could expect if they joined the club was a big boost in recruiting players for the summer. While IMG has a group of players that train at the facility year-round, he was excited to get players who are on the verge of making the jump into the professional ranks to add experience and ability to his club.
And the players are certainly able to get a lot out of their time in Bradenton, both on and off the field.
“We bring them right into the family right away, we get them acclimated, we treat them like the former IMG alumni that went to school here and continue to train with us, we try to blend them in right away,” Dean said. “We want this to be their ground that when they make it big, they want to come back here and train in the offseason. We always want it to be their home, so they always have a place to come back and sharpen up, or get fit, or get prepared for next season.”
For Watkins, the opportunity to play and train with Dean and his staff as he strives to reach his goal of making the professional ranks is one he doesn’t want to let pass him by.
“This is fantastic, I just graduated college, and to come to a facility like this is phenomenal,” Watkins said. “I have everything at my fingertips to achieve my goal, so it’s down to my work ethic and how hard am I going to work to get to where I want to go.”